1. Priority Claim
This application claims the benefit of EPO Application No. 07425528.2 with the filing date of Aug. 13, 2007, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
2. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to identifying and managing service requests. More specifically, the disclosure concerns managing service request related messages across an enterprise of multiple applications.
3. Background Information
The communications industry continues to face demands for more services, and rapid deployment of new services, while the complexity of the underlying technologies providing the services continues to increase. Service providers require systems that provide both residential and commercial consumers the ability to easily activate and manage requests for services. Telecommunications service providers recognize the ability of consumers to choose desired services and take at least basic steps to order the services as a critical market differentiator. Consumers assess service providers based on the number of available services and the ease of activation and use of the services by consumers. Consumers also recognize the cycle-time between initiating a request for a service and successful service activation as a dominant market differentiator.
Provisioning telecommunication services involves many complex and technical details, and often spans multiple applications and systems resting on various technical platforms and several geographic locations. For any given service request, there may be multiple such systems that need to be accessed, utilized, and updated. These systems may be completely unrelated to each other. For example, a billing system is likely distinct from an order processing system. Additionally, an enterprise may have multiple billings systems at multiple geographic locations. Furthermore, the precise sequence of accessing, utilizing, and updating such systems is essential to the successful execution of a given service request. Additionally, the handling of several service requests at once, both related and unrelated, may clog network resources and result in errors if the requests are not handled properly, causing significant human intervention. The need for human interaction can significantly increase the cost associated for providing consumers with a level of acceptable customer service. Furthermore, if the required precise execution sequence of events is not properly handled, it can result in lost profits for the telecommunications service provider and a lack of trust by frustrated consumers towards the telecommunications service provider. For example, if an error occurs while a consumer is interacting with a telecommunication service provider, the consumer may halt the process and choose another telecommunications service provider.
Currently, in order for a telecommunications service provider to create a framework of processing service requests across multiple distinct applications and geographical locations, the telecommunications service provider implements a series of software applications geared towards their unique business. This can take an extraordinary amount of time and be very costly to the service provider. Furthermore, with all of the available software tools on the market, telecommunications service providers use various software tools on multiple different platforms. The telecommunications service provider's information technology may also be more comfortable using one set of tools versus another. For example, one information technology team may be better trained in UNIX and software that runs in a UNIX environment while another information technology team be more comfortable with Microsoft and Microsoft based products.